Newport News trial date set for local rapper charged in homicides

NEWPORT NEWS — The trial for a local rapper charged in two killings is set for February.

Antwain Steward, 22, is charged with killing Brian Dean, 20, and Christopher Horton, 16, on May 10, 2007. The men were shot while standing near 23rd Street and Orcutt Avenue. Steward, a father of three, was charged with the homicides in July.

Steward's three-day trial has been scheduled for Feb. 11-13. A Newport News grand jury indicted Steward Tuesday on two counts of murder and firearms charges, according to court documents.

The two victims were standing outside Horton's home about 1:15 p.m. when they were gunned down. Steward was 16 at the time of the homicides.

Horton and Steward had gotten into a fight prior to the shooting, a witness told police in an affidavit filed in Newport News Circuit Court. Dean was not a target of the shooting, according to police.

"It's definitely a step in the right direction," Nicoletta Dean-Peebles, Dean's mother, said Wednesday. "I'm thankful that this process seems to be working for my son and Mr. Horton. It's a step closer for his family and his friends to get the closure we all need."

Steward's arrest came after police say they learned that one of his rap songs, "Ride Out," referenced the double homicide. Steward goes by the rap name Twain Gotti.

"Everybody saw when I [expletive] choked him. But nobody saw when I [expletive] smoked him, roped him, sharpened up the shank then I poked him, 357 Smith and Wesson big scoped him, roped him. Had me crackin' up so I joked him, it is betweezy six feet ova, told ya [expletive] with my money I'll roast ya," an affidavit filed in Newport News Circuit Court quotes the song as saying.

"As far as what they saying they have a witness five years later and a rap song — that doesn't seem like a solid case to charge someone with murder," Pope said Wednesday.

The state's evidence against Steward includes a woman who testified that she was sitting on her front porch a block away when the shooting occurred.

"I seen two gentlemen rustling and tousling," she said during Stewart's Oct. 2 preliminary hearing. "I seen a young man fall. I heard gunshots. One of the men came running toward me and pulled up his shirt to let me know he had a pistol."

After the shooting, the woman spoke with police but didn't know the identity of the man she saw run toward her, she testified. Last year the woman identified Steward as the man after police showed her a photo lineup of seven people. Another prosecution witness testified that he was in the studio with Steward when the song was recorded and that Steward admitted it referenced the incident.